This has been told before at least a dozen times.
I just put some pictures to it.

What you need,
Laser copy or laser print. The toner is the magic in this!
Acetone (this was done with nailpolish remover) , brush, scissors, tape and metal sheet.

To use this method, be clean and quick. Do some tests before ! From moistening with nailpolishremover or acetone until revealing the transfer it only takes less then a minute. Work clean and fast.
For smaller transfers a cotton swab or cloth would work very good.
Do test the copier, I had a copier next door that worked a charm. It got replaced and did not work at all. Another copier worked better with denaturalized alcohol and wintergreenoil. Do do some testing!
As I said, its all been said before! So I only hope my picture's help a bit.

I scanned in a drawing and attempted this method with an HP 2710 LaserJet but couldn't get this method to work with my printer. Since I didn't have any acetate handy, I printed on Denril vellum. When it was almost dry, I burnished it on to the metal with a Q-tip. I wish my printer would have cooperated with the method above though, since those transfers are much nicer in contrast and clarity. -Mel

Hi Mel and all others.
Did the toner stick just a bit or not at all?
A laser printer that I used recently did not want to transfer by pulling the paper of.
Then I remembered a golden tip from someone else who said he left the paper on until the acetone dried up completely. After that he wetted the paper under the tap and when it was wet he started to rubb of the paper.
It comes off in little rolled up bits but if done with care you can rubb of the paper almost completely. This might not work (with the high quality paper i used) for very fine work but I did use it on both buckle designs.http://www.handengravingforum.com/showthread.php?t=4058
There were a few furry bits under the microscope but still very good to see where the graver should go.
If I try again I will make some pics.

I've found that there's a window of time to remove the paper. Too wet and the image smears. Too dry and it re-adheres to the paper.

Letting it dry and then soaking off the paper sounds interesting.

I learned a similar trick many, many years ago I used to use to make little signs & plaques (now I can just engrave them).

Print your design with a laser printer, cover it with clear tape or clear contact paper (depending on the size). Soak this in slightly soapy water until the paper is thoroughly saturated. Gently rub the paper off of the tape and it will leave the image behind. Usually the tape still has enough adhesion you can then lay it down onto a subtrate to make a sign. This also works with the print in a glossy magazine - you can turn the pictures into what look like slides.

Hmmm... wonder if adding a couple of drops of dishwashing soap would help take the paper off of a transfer for engraving?

The laser copy, silver plate etc.
Transfer taped onto the plate,
Transfer wetted with nailpolish remover (acetone)
How it looks whenn dry
Soaked and half rubbed away. Dont rubb to hard and wet often.
You can rubb fairly roughly but whenn the rolls of paper get bigger you should rinse. You can damage the transfer by rubbing too much. But if you don't rubb enough the left over paper fibers will be anoying at least Do remind that this is a tip from someone else. I just put photo's to it.
Good luck and hope this helps.

This has been told before at least a dozen times.
I just put some pictures to it.

What you need,
Laser copy or laser print. The toner is the magic in this!
Acetone (this was done with nailpolish remover) , brush, scissors, tape and metal sheet.

To use this method, be clean and quick. Do some tests before ! From moistening with nailpolishremover or acetone until revealing the transfer it only takes less then a minute. Work clean and fast.
For smaller transfers a cotton swab or cloth would work very good.
Do test the copier, I had a copier next door that worked a charm. It got replaced and did not work at all. Another copier worked better with denaturalized alcohol and wintergreenoil. Do do some testing!
As I said, its all been said before! So I only hope my picture's help a bit.

Daniel

Thanks for the tutorial, it helps a lot.
I have used HP4500 Laserprinter, and it works fine.

I've done a similar type transfer onto metal, but using slightly different materials.

For the printing portion, rather than using vellum or parchment, I used the waxy paper that is under a set of laser printer labels(from a company like Avery). So print up your Christmas letter address labels (or insert holiday of choice here), and save the backing paper.

For getting the toner off the wax, buy a can of 3m Super 77 spray adhesive.

1. Print a reverse image of your artwork to the waxy paper.

2. Spray the metal plate with a layer of Super 77.

3. Put the wax paper with the toner side down (ha!) onto the metal plate, and burnish (still learning the engraving lingo, I think burnish is what I want. In other words, rub the backside of the paper so that you are pushing the toner onto the metal plate).

4. Slowly peel the wax paper off. Slowly, so that if you missed any area, you can put it back down and rub the back to transfer the toner.

Once your artwork is transferred, let it sit until the spray adhesive is no longer tacky, and your done.

Daniel. Great work and great tutorial.
Thanks for this help.
If you dont mind us telling where do you get these pictures printed from.If its a book can you give us a name or link on the website.
No pressure only if you like to share this information.
AK

Hi AK.
I am glad you liked it and hope its of some use to you.
Like most of the tutorials posted here we make them ourselves in our workshop with our own camera. So there is no book that they come from.
It could be nice to start rounding these tutorials up and putting them in a digibook or something. Or make a list of things that tutorials could be made of.
There are some gems among these tutorials here that would deserve a book

Daniel
Thank you for your reply.
Also can you let me know the prints you transfer on the plates!
The Logos and vintage vector art work Where did you get them was it from the book ? Can you let me know the name?
Kind regards

For your reference I am using the Brother HL-2230 laser printer with regular acetone nail polish remover and it is working great. The method I have to use with it is to wrap the paper over the metal and then soak it with acetone. I then VERY gently pull at an edge of the paper and it sucks the paper down tight to the metal. With a brush dipped in acetone I brush out any remaining bubbles and with the paper still really wet with acetone I lay another flat piece of metal over it. After about 10 minutes I check to see if the paper is MOSTLY dry but not completely. It should have a very slight damp feeling to it. I then run water over it while gently rubbing the paper. The paper quickly dissolves and leaves a perfect transfer.

Make sure the printer isn't set to "toner save mode" and print your lines rather thick.

From my previous posts you might have seen me struggling to get my HP laser to do this, at best I was getting a very light transfer amend needed to view at an angle to get enough contrast for engraving, most annoying, but my wife's voracious cookbook printing finished my toner and she replaced it with a cheap knockoff toner on eBay.. Now its perfect, its like I have printed straight onto the metal. A quick rub with a cotton swab dipped in acetone, not too m ch, just damp and I dab it, blow dry, dab, blow, dab, blow etc etc. At work now will add printer model $79 from office works and the eBay toner if we can backtrack the invoice.

__________________
Most human beings only think they want freedom. In truth they yearn for the bondage of social order, rigid laws, materialism, the only freedom man really wants, is the freedom to become comfortable. - (Sons of Anarchy)

and it seems like the cheaper and nastier the replacement toner is, the better it works...

__________________
Most human beings only think they want freedom. In truth they yearn for the bondage of social order, rigid laws, materialism, the only freedom man really wants, is the freedom to become comfortable. - (Sons of Anarchy)

another one is the cannon photo smart they usually sell it in Walmart for about 55 dollar great and the ink for both cartridge color and black is about 50 but you bring the old one to staple an refilled them for about 15

I went out and bought a Brother L2380 the other night and tried to get a transfer to work using it. I tried printing on plain white paper, wax paper, and the back part of a shipping label and couldnt get any of them to transfer using Acetone. Anyone recently purchase a printer that this method works with? Looking to return this one and get one that will work with this method.

Hi Dankwun
A b/w printer laser printer should work .I have had good results with a HL-2035 b/w brother printer and with lighter fluid with windsor newton damar varnish mix and silicone baking paper .I have not changed the printer since then.
But you have to tweak this to work for you ?

http://www.engravingschool.com/private/transfers.htm

SE

__________________Learn from those who know more than you do and teach those who know less than you do. - I.M.

Brother printers use a different type of toner that HP printers. I have tried all sorts of solvents including some specialty industrial ones, nothing works.
However, when my Brother printer ran out of toner I purchased a refill kit off of eBay. The toner in the refill kit worked with acetone and did a good transfer. Obviously the refill kit did not contain original Brother toner, but the printer works just fine.
Brother printers are way easier to refill than HP, which makes them probably the lowest cost per page laser printer.

__________________
Joe

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it? Albert Einstein

cool. I will have to try this. Have a BB gun I need to come up with some design i can put on it so i can work my way up on design for different gun. Have a Brothers laser printer.

A few years back when I did pens ( on the wood lathe, pen inserts etc.) and had my student transfer the school name on the pen using a laser printer. Use a solder/wood burner pen to head the back side of the paper and lift the paper a little till we could see if all the carbon or what ever the Toner is made of to the wood. Then Lacquer /seal it.